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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22473268">Conversations with Living People</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_big_apple/pseuds/a_big_apple'>a_big_apple</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Steven Universe (Cartoon)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Baby Steven Universe, Bird mom, F/F, F/M, Family, Gen, No surprises--Major Character Death tag is for Rose, Parenthood, They all love each other very much okay</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-01-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-01-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 10:29:00</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,946</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22473268</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/a_big_apple/pseuds/a_big_apple</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>She won’t tell him anything about her life before him, but he can see the shape of it in the empty spaces of her silence. It’s shaped like guilt and sorrow; it’s shaped like injustice so large no one person can hope to change it. She wants to create life, as if one life can redeem everything; she wants to disappear and leave the world better behind her. It’s impossible to imagine a future without her; it’s impossible to imagine denying her, when the unknowns behind her desire are vast as the universe.</p>
<p>Scenes from the months before and after Steven's birth.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Pearl/Rose Quartz (Steven Universe), Rose Quartz/Greg Universe</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>62</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    
<p></p><blockquote>
  <p>"Time goes by, and everything drops away. All the cruelty, all the pain, all the humiliation. It all washes away. I miss my friends. I miss my enemies. I miss the people I talked to every day. I miss the people who never knew I existed. I miss 'em all. I want to talk to them, you know. I want to find out how they're doing. I want to know what's going on in their lives."</p>
</blockquote><p> </p><p> </p><p>They’ve talked about it endlessly. Circled, shouted, cried, kissed about it. Greg likes kids, though he never thought of having his own; Greg loves Rose, more than anything, and it’s making it harder and harder to argue against what she clearly, urgently wants. </p><p>She won’t tell him anything about her life before him, but he can see the shape of it in the empty spaces of her silence. It’s shaped like guilt and sorrow; it’s shaped like injustice so large no one person can hope to change it. She wants to create life, as if one life can redeem everything; she wants to disappear and leave the world better behind her. It’s impossible to imagine a future without her; it’s impossible to imagine denying her, when the unknowns behind her desire are vast as the universe.</p><p>In the end, he’s swept up in it all—her ardentpersuasion, her joyful conviction. They begin to make plans instead of counterarguments. They spend so much time talking, exploring, singing together. He spends so much time wrapped in her arms, teaching her what human bodies do, trying not to think about what comes after. </p><p>She doesn’t tell the other gems what they’re planning. The more time Rose spends with him, the more Amethyst clings to her when she leaves and Garnet looks between them with poorly hidden curiosity. The worse things get with Pearl, who warps away anytime she sees him, her expression broken and frozen over with ice.</p><p>Greg hopes, in the deep, selfish parts of himself, that it just won’t work. Then one day it does; Rose comes to see him at the car wash, pulls him aside with a smile brighter than the sun. She lays his hand on her belly, just below the gem. “You’re going to be a father, Mr. Universe,” she tells him. It wasn’t entirely, truly real until that moment. There’s no change he can see or feel or sense, but she assures him it’s there—the child she’s going to give her life for.</p><p>Rose waits months to tell the others, until she’s starting to show. She asks him to give her, the gems, the temple, some space for a few days. To give them a little time to process. He can’t deny them that, even though every day, every minute he spends without her is one he’ll never get back. They’ve been with her for thousands of years, and she’s given them just months to prepare to lose her.</p><p>After an agonizing week alone, spent reading Vidalia’s baby care books and planning how to fit a crib into his van, he cautiously returns to the temple. He waits by the entrance for hours, noodling on his guitar, before the door opens and the gems emerge.</p><p>“We can handle it without you,” Garnet is saying, a hand on her visor. “We don’t know what would happen if you poofed, we shouldn’t take the risk.”</p><p>“I’ve never once been poofed,” Rose says, following; behind her, Pearl visibly flinches, then pushes past her to step onto the warp. “I’ve got my shield, I’ll be <em>fine—”</em></p><p>“<em>No,</em>” Pearl interrupts, “you should <em>stay here.” </em>Her tone is not a suggestion, her posture defiant, and Rose stares at her with a shocked expression. “We have to be able to handle missions without you.” Pearl’s voice only wavers a little, otherwise she doesn’t move a muscle. </p><p>Then Amethyst, arms wrapped around herself, finally spots him. “Oh,” she says into the tense silence, “hey Greg.”</p><p>Rose’s face lights. “You’re back,” she says, as if she wasn’t the one who told him to stay away. She comes closer to kiss him, and behind them the warp activates.</p><p>They sit on the beach and talk about anything but the other gems; he sings songs up close to her belly, even though the baby probably doesn’t have ears yet. Hours later Garnet and Amethyst return, with Pearl’s gem cradled carefully in Amethyst’s hands.</p><p>***</p><p>The baby could be born any day now; Rose can feel them quietly moving, dreaming, pulling energy from her gem. She is the only one who could do this, she thinks. The only gem with the power and the desire needed to create life this way. The baby is ready, poised to change the world—Rose must make herself ready, too.</p><p>She takes Amethyst to the kindergarten. “Life is precious,” she says, “because life is potential. Here on Earth you can be anything. This baby could be anything.” She sits on Amethyst’s favorite sitting rock, and Amethyst drapes herself over Rose’s belly. </p><p>“So <em>you</em> could be anything, Rose,” she says, a soft whine in her voice. “Why do you want to be a <em>baby</em>?” </p><p>“I don’t,” Rose replies, stroking Amethyst’s hair and hoping she understands. “I won’t be. I’ll be gone, and the baby will be here instead. A fresh start, a new life. That’s what the Earth is all about. When we found you here in the Kindergarten, all alone, I was so amazed! Life that persisted and thrived even in this abandoned place! An innocent, untouched by the war. This is your planet, your home, and I hope you’ll help the baby to explore it. It’s their home too.”</p><p>Amethyst doesn’t reply, just hides her tears in Rose’s dress. Hours later when the sun goes down, Rose brings her home.</p><p>***</p><p>“You’re always saying that life is precious, Rose, but forgetting that <em>your</em> life is precious! Your life is more precious than a crazy impulse!”</p><p>“My life is worth the same as any other life, Pearl. Truthfully, less than any other. I’ve come as far as I can; everything on Earth changes and grows, in ways I’m just not capable of. This child will change and grow too, every day!” Rose folds her hands together, desperate. “It’s all I want. It’s all I can give back to the Earth. If you still love me, if you ever loved me, you’ll look after them. Guide them, protect them in my place. It’s the last thing I’ll ever ask of you, Pearl.”</p><p>Pearl is crumpled into the pink clouds of Rose’s room like she hasn’t the will to even raise her head; Rose aches to go to her, but mustn’t touch her. If she touches her it will be an order from her Diamond; this has to be Pearl’s will, Pearl’s choice. “I’ve loved you from the first moment I saw you, Rose,” she says, trembling and choked with tears. “I’ve loved you for thousands of years. I don’t know how to do this without you. I’m just a...I’m <em>yours</em>.”</p><p>“You belong to nobody, Pearl,” Rose reminds her gently. “You are stronger than any gem I’ve ever known. I’m trusting you to carry on protecting the Earth, protecting my child, because I know you can. You can do anything, without me holding you back.”</p><p>Pearl sobs into her hands, exhausted, and it hurts. Rose bears it because she loves her, because she knows she’s right, but it’s almost too much. “I’ll do what you ask,” Pearl rasps at last. “I’ll do anything you ask.”</p><p>Immediately Rose crosses the painful distance between them, gathers Pearl into her arms. Kisses the tears from her cheeks, kisses her gem, kisses her mouth with gentle care. “Thank you,” she breathes against Pearl’s skin. “Thank you.”</p><p>Pearl doesn’t answer; just clutches Rose’s arms like it’s keeping her from shattering, accepts her kisses through tears that won’t stop. </p><p>***</p><p>“I won’t ask what you see,” she tells Garnet. They sit together in the bubble room; it’s a little grim to have corrupted friends and enemies hanging around their heads, but it’s also a reminder of what Rose is trying to do, everything she’s trying to make up for. Garnet is quiet and very still, as if any movement will disrupt her careful composure. “I won’t ask because I’m sure I’ve made the right choice, and I’m sure the Crystal Gems will carry on just fine without me. You have everything it takes to lead them, Garnet. You’re going to be wonderful.”</p><p>Garnet takes her visor off; her eyes are all closed tight against tears. “I can’t see that. There are so many paths now, and none of them make sense; I can’t see anything.”</p><p>“Then trust me,” Rose says, quiet. “You’ll take care of each other. Amethyst will be whatever, whoever she wants to be, with no one to tell her she can’t. Pearl will finally be her own gem, at last entirely free. You will be yourself, only and precisely yourself, changing everything just by existing. And my child...they’ll be something no one’s ever seen before.” Garnet is watching her now, her gaze intense; Rose looks up at the bubbles, instead. “I wish I could meet them. See them grow. But with you three and Greg in their life, I know they’ll have all the love and safety they need to blossom.”</p><p>“Rose,” Garnet says at last. “You have to know that...this is hurting us. That losing you will hurt us. Amethyst looks up to you for guidance. Pearl, and Greg, they <em>love you</em>. We all love you.”</p><p>Finally Rose brings herself to meet Garnet’s eyes, reaches out to take her hands, Ruby on the left and Sapphire on the right. “I know. I love you all so much, and it pains me to hurt you. But this is the path I’ve chosen. This is the way forward for us. For me. It’ll hurt for a little while, but soon the future will be brighter. You’ll see.”</p><p>***</p><p>It’s a drain on her resources, to incubate another living being. To feed it as it develops inside her; to hold the shape that cradles it. Only a Diamond could do it, she thinks, but even a Diamond is still a gem—and gems can’t create life without taking. </p><p>At last she’s said all the things she needs to say, and she’s growing tired, and she’s ready to make one final metamorphosis. The sand and the sea are summer-warmed; the day was beautiful, and the night is clear and glittering with stars. She tells her family that it’s time. Greg holds her hand and kisses her; Pearl curls into her side. Garnet sits at her feet, Amethyst in her lap. They tell her they love her through their tears, and she has never felt such joy. Such peace. </p><p>It’s easy to let go.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Greg has prepared as much as he could. He’s got a bassinet in the van, formula, bottles, diapers. He’s hired a couple of teenagers to work the car wash for a while, though he’ll be parked there often anyway, using the shower and the little kitchenette in the back room. He’s got baby books from Vidalia, and a diaper bag, and all kinds of other things she lent him; he’s got his guitar tucked in the passenger seat, waiting for the times he needs to sing and soothe.</p><p>He’s prepared, but he’s not ready. He could never be ready. The sound Rose’s body makes when it poofs into sparkling smoke will haunt his dreams, when he has the time to sleep. But from the first moment he sees the squalling infant in the sand, her gem huge in his tiny belly, he feels intensely what she must have felt—that this creature is a miracle, his to protect, and he loves him with his whole heart. He wraps Steven up in a blanket, holds him close to his chest until the crying eases into soft, tremulous bird sounds, and then into the quick-quiet breathing of sleep.</p><p>For the first hours of Steven’s life, his family sit in the sand and watch him, hold him in turns; first Garnet, her visor down, mesmerized, then Amethyst, careful and uncertain. They try to put him in Pearl’s arms, but she hasn’t stopped trembling. She touches him just once, to put a tiny hat on his head when the night breeze picks up off the water, then wraps her arms around her knees and hides her face.</p><p>When Steven wakes again at last, whining pitifully and sticking out his tongue, Greg takes him back from Amethyst and gets to his feet. “I should try to feed him,” he tells the gems, “and then maybe we can both sleep for a while. I’ll...I’ll stay parked here on the beach for a few days, so you can come see him when you want to.”</p><p>“Bye, Little Rose,” Amethyst says, subdued; Garnet squeezes her shoulder.</p><p>“Goodnight, Greg.”</p><p>Pearl doesn’t say anything. When Greg gets to the van and looks back, Garnet and Amethyst have sandwiched her between them; he’s sure she’s crying again, but the wind and the ocean drown out the sound. Even after everything, he feels for her. He knows that if he wasn’t so overwhelmed, so completely unable to process what’s happening, he’d be crying again too.</p><p>***</p><p>Months pass in a blur of feeding, rocking, changing, napping, a punishing cycle that quickly becomes something like a routine. Vidalia helps when she can, takes Steven for a few hours at a time while Greg showers and eats, talks him through the darker moments. Garnet and Amethyst visit often, still seeming mystified but growing more confident in holding him. “He likes to be bounced,” Greg tells them, so Amethyst turns into a ball that Garnet can sit on, and Steven stares at her with fascination as they bounce up and down. </p><p>Pearl comes sometimes too, lingering around the edges; she tidies the van, brings empty bottles into the car wash to clean them in the sink, watches Steven sleep with single-minded focus. She shies away from holding him, her body language totally closed off, so Greg doesn’t press; it’s lucky that Garnet and Amethyst do. He leaves Steven with them long enough to get a pizza from Fish Stew, and when he comes back Steven is tucked into the crook of Pearl’s arm looking as though he belongs there, happily sucking down a bottle of formula. Greg and Amethyst eat the pizza sitting on the ground beside the van with Garnet, giving Pearl some space. When the bottle’s empty she cradles Steven against her chest, under her chin; when he falls asleep there she cries again, but Greg’s crying too, so it all works out.</p><p>***</p><p>Things get better after the kidnapping thing. Once Greg and the gems are all on the same page about what Steven is, and what he needs. They start to talk about the future, some things Garnet can guess at, some things that are just speculation. Looking ahead to a time when Steven won’t need constant human care anymore, when he’ll need gem power training instead, they start to make plans.</p><p>The winter weather’s starting to ease up when there’s a quiet, polite knock at the van’s back doors in the early morning. Steven’s still sleeping and Greg was hoping for more sleep too, but he scrubs a hand over his face and opens the door to the dawn. It’s Pearl, alone, hands folded together like she’s trying not to wring them.</p><p>“Pearl? Is everything okay? It’s pretty early still,” Greg murmurs.</p><p>She glances at Steven, then back down at her hands. “Everything’s fine,” she replies, just as quiet. “I was hoping...you could teach me. More about babies. How to take care of Steven. You’ll have to go back to work sometime, though I do keep a savings of human currency, and I want to make sure he’s properly looked after. I’ve been reading about child development, but it’s just not <em>specific</em> enough, and I don’t...I still don’t really understand...human things.”</p><p>“Pearl,” he says, and she finally looks up, a determined expression covering the uncertain hunch of her shoulders. “That would be a huge help. I can’t say I’m an expert, but I can show you what I’ve learned.”</p><p>After that, Pearl comes weekly for Steven Lessons. She saves Greg’s knees from the deep knee bends that can make Steven stop crying when he’s fussy. She forges a library card somehow and learns about nutrition, learns how to cook over the single-burner stovetop in the car wash back room, how to puree baby food and convince Steven to eat it. She records his happy giggles and projects them from her gem, shows them to anyone who happens by. Sometimes Greg wakes in the middle of the night to hear her singing, looks blearily out the open van doors to watch her dance with Steven cradled close. </p><p>Once, he comes back from washing cars all day to find her sleeping on his mattress, Steven tucked into her side. He didn’t think she knew how to sleep, and he’s sure it’s not on purpose. He didn’t think gems could dream either, but there her dream is, shining from her gem like a beacon; Rose lying in a field of flowers, Rose leading Pearl through a shadowy wood, Rose playing in the sand on the beach outside the temple. Greg turns away and closes the doors, sits outside in a lawn chair to wait for Pearl to wake.</p><p>There are bad times too, when Greg is too heartsick and tired to be patient, when Pearl is too overwhelmed and goes cold and overbearing. The specter of Rose is always between them, too huge to ever really overcome. But she loves Steven. The gems all love Steven, and that’s enough.</p><p>***</p><p>Compared to the millennia she’s already lived, a year without Rose should feel like nothing. It doesn’t. Time seems to warp around the emptiness inside her, a grief so large it has its own gravity. A black hole, where every fantasy she ever had for her life gets sucked in with the light, never to be seen again.</p><p>But, there’s Steven.</p><p>There’s something special about Steven. She can’t separate all the threads that draw her to him; Rose is part of him, <em>Pink</em> is part of him, and Pearl is bound to him by her nature and her heart in equal measures. She can’t tell yet whether he can command her, but he won’t know he <em>could</em> unless she tells him, and so he’ll never know. He commands her in other ways, chubby hands raised when he wants to be held, giggles when she’s made him happy, tears when he wants to be comforted. </p><p>She’s read that babies are sometimes so overwhelmed when they see the faces they love that they have to look away; Pearl understands. She feels so <em>much</em>, joy and grief together, and love most of all.</p><p>"I've been reading about pre-verbal communication for humans Steven's age," Pearl says one afternoon, bouncing Steven on her knee while Greg makes silly faces at him.</p><p>Greg crosses his eyes and sticks out his tongue; Steven shrieks with delight. "Oh yeah? I don't know what that means!" he says to the baby, in that peculiar way human adults address their offspring. "What is Pearl talking about?" He punctuates each word with a gentle poke to Steven's belly and sides, and Steven shrieks again.</p><p>"Baby sign language," Pearl explains. "I understand now why the dictionary I got him wasn't practical for his current language skills, hand signs seem much more within his capability. If we start using them with him now, he'll start to learn what they mean, and in a few months he should be able to copy them to tell us what he needs."</p><p>Finally Greg looks up at her with a pleased smile. "That sounds like a great idea. You'll teach me too?"</p><p>"Of course," she says, trying to cover the sudden flash of warmth at his approval. "It only works if we all use them with regularity."</p><p>They start to pepper signs into their interactions with Steven, and it's fascinating to watch him watch them, to see him start to process what these movements mean. "Eat" and "sleep," "more" and "done," "play" and "Daddy." For Garnet, two hands clasped together; for Amethyst, a closed fist over the chest. For Pearl, a fist over the forehead, gently tapped, and for Steven, a belly pat.</p><p>Steven is clever; she can see it in his expressions, in his uncoordinated attempts to copy what he observes. Every day he learns more, and Pearl is starting to understand what Rose was so excited about.</p><p>***</p><p>Come spring, Vidalia and her family go on a week's vacation and offer Greg and Steven use of their house again. "It's perfect timing," Greg tells the gems, when they come to help him move the crib into the house. "The van <em>really</em> needs a tuneup, and I know a guy who'll do it cheap but..." he scratches the back of his neck awkwardly, a human tell Pearl hasn't quite figured out. "He's all the way in Jersey. I'll have to stay there overnight, and it’ll be tricky to bring Steven."</p><p>The gems have never cared for Steven overnight before, not by themselves. It's too dangerous to bring a baby into the temple, and Greg <em>lives</em> in the van, so he's always there. Still, isn't this what her Steven Lessons have been about? To prepare herself, and Garnet and Amethyst by proxy, to have more and more involved guardianship?</p><p>“We can look after him,” Pearl says, with the confidence befitting a daring renegade. “Right, Garnet?”</p><p>Garnet gives a thumbs up and a knowing smile. “Absolutely.”</p><p>“Aww yeah! Party all night with Steve-o,” Amethyst shouts, and swipes Steven from Pearl’s hands to dance him around the room.</p><p>“Not really,” Garnet tells her, and Greg sighs. </p><p>“At least she’s enthusiastic.”</p><p>***</p><p>“This kid’s diapers get gnarlier every day,” Amethyst comments later, with no less enthusiasm. “It’s really impressive!”</p><p>“It’s the puree,” Pearl sighs, with a tiny shudder. “He eats more than just formula now.”</p><p>“Yeah, I know, we just fed him an hour ago. I still have mushy rutabaga in my hair.” She plops him down in Garnet’s lap. “Now I’m hungry.”</p><p>“Wash your hands first!” Pearl shouts after her as she heads to the kitchen.</p><p>“Yeah, yeah!”</p><p>Garnet puts her feet up on the table and props Steven against her thighs; with a flick her visor disappears into sparkles, and her eyes open one by one. She pops her lips a few times, and grins when Steven giggles. “Hello, Steven.”</p><p>He claps his hands together, and her grin widens. “That’s right! I’m Garnet.” She clasps her own hands, then holds them out for him to examine. Nothing captures his attention, Pearl has noticed, quite like the sparkle of Garnet and Amethyst’s faceted gems. She’s not jealous in the slightest, of course. Her own gem may be smooth, and imperfectly shaped, but it’s still as lustrous as the day she was made.</p><p>Steven looks at the offered gems with his eyes, and then his hands, and then his mouth, pulling Garnet’s finger in to gum on. </p><p>“Oh, dear,” Pearl says fondly. “We should break you of that habit before you get any more teeth.” When she offers the bright pink teething ring, his favorite one, he gnaws on Garnet’s knuckle consideringly and then reaches for it. “That’s better. Hm?” Then Garnet stiffens beside her without warning; when Pearl looks over, her third eye is wide and staring into the middle distance. “Garnet?”</p><p>“Stay here with Steven,” she says after a moment, passing him over. “Amethyst! Mission!”</p><p>“By myself?” Pearl asks, hugging Steven close. “I-I mean, will you two be alright without me?”</p><p>With a swift gesture Garnet’s visor slides back over her eyes and she gets to her feet. “You’ll be fine,” she says, and gives a thumbs up.</p><p>“Did you know this was going to happen?!”</p><p>“It was a possibility,” Garnet says with a guileless smile as Amethyst skids into the room.</p><p>“Heck yeah, MISSION TIME!”</p><p>“We’ll be back by morning,” Garnet tells her, and in the next moment they’re out the door.</p><p>Steven squirms against her chest, babbling, and Pearl slumps back into the couch cushions to look at him. “Well,” she says. “Just the two of us, then.” His face splits into a grin and he taps a chubby fist to his forehead. “That’s right,” Pearl tells him, tapping her own fist lightly against her gem, and then patting her stomach. “Pearl and Steven.” Delighted, he leans toward her and tips forward into her hands with a happy coo.</p><p>***</p><p>The house is dim and quiet when she gives Steven his last bottle of the night; it’s much more comfortable here in Vidalia’s rocking chair than crammed into the van, and soothing to have Steven’s warm weight nestled into her arm. When his eyes start to droop she sets the bottle aside and rocks him, humming until his breathing evens out. Rose would have loved this, she knows, holding this fragile creature. His chubby cheeks, his soft puffs of breath, his utter trust all would have delighted her. Pearl never asked for this, would never have even thought to ask, but it all quietly delights her too.</p><p>She watches him sleep for a long time, just slowly rocking, but there are dishes to wash and clothes to launder and a rare opportunity to do so. With reluctant care she eases him into the crib, and slips silently from the room.</p><p>The laundry is in the basement, so when she’s finished washing dishes and cleaning up the puree that missed Steven’s mouth and wound up on the floor, she peeks in to see him still peacefully sleeping and then heads down to put in a load of wash. Less than fifteen minutes later she steps away from the rumble of the machine, and that’s when the wailing reaches her.</p><p><em>Steven!</em> She races back to the stairs, takes them two at a time. <em>He was fine just a few minutes ago! I shouldn’t have left him alone. But he was sleeping! Greg said he sleeps through the night! Foolish, useless, careless pearl—</em></p><p>When she skids into the bedroom there’s nothing amiss, except for Steven with his face scrunched up and soaked with tears, his fist smacking into his forehead over and over. </p><p>
  <em>Pearl! Pearl! Pearl!</em>
</p><p>“Steven, oh, Steven, I’m here, I’m right here,” she says, scooping him up and cradling him against her. “I’m sorry, I’m here. You’re safe. I didn’t leave you, I won’t leave you.”</p><p>He sobs into her shoulder as though the world is ending, and it’s been months since his crying triggered her own tears, but here she is wet-eyed and trembling. Taking a breath, she tips her mouth to his ear. “What can I do for you?” she sings, quiet, swaying. “What can I do that no-one else can do?”</p><p>They waltz around the dark room until his panic winds down into hiccups and fussing, and then she sinks back into the rocking chair. “Oh, Steven,” she murmurs as he grizzles into her neck. “I wasn’t thinking. You’ve never woken up alone before, have you? Your first night away from Greg, and I leave you all by yourself in this big empty house. I’m so sorry.” She strokes his soft curls, rocking, rocking. “But you’ll learn, you see? You’ll find out. I’ll never leave you. Sometimes we’ll be apart, but I’ll always come back. That’s what a pearl is fo—that’s what a <em>free</em> pearl does. I <em>choose</em> who gets my fealty.” </p><p>He’s a warm, heavy weight against her, slowly quieting down to little whimpers, and then just the soft breathing of sleep. She should put him back in the crib; he can’t always sleep in someone’s arms. She doesn’t. Instead she pulls a blanket from her gem and drapes it around them both. “Rose would have loved every moment of this,” she whispers into his hair like a secret, her eyes welling up again. “But I think maybe...you’re better off with us.”</p><p>***</p><p>Just as the sky outside the windows is starting to lighten, Pearl hears the front door creak open and two familiar sets of footsteps approach. They both pause in the doorway, quiet; then Amethyst comes over and squeezes into the chair too, pressed up against Pearl’s side. “Poofed ‘n bubbled,” she murmurs, laying a light hand on Steven’s sleeping back. Pearl glances up at Garnet. She wants to ask who it was; if it was someone they knew, fought with, loved. Garnet looks like she’s braced for the question, but when Pearl stays silent she smiles a little. Then she reaches down and scoops them all up, Pearl and Amethyst and Steven tucked between them. </p><p>“Garnet!” Pearl hisses, but Amethyst giggles and Garnet grins, waddle-walking them all over to the bed and then settling them down in her lap.</p><p>“How was your night?” she asks, soft. </p><p>Pearl hides her own small smile in Steven’s hair. “Just fine.”</p><p>That’s where Greg finds them when he gets back, all cuddled and murmuring together, Steven lying contentedly between them with a bottle in his mouth. “Man, I really should invest in one of those new-fangled phones with the camera built in.” </p><p>“Hey Greg!”</p><p>“Hello, Greg.”</p><p>“Welcome back.”</p><p>“Hey, y’all. I brought breakfast,” he says, holding up a box of donuts and a greasy fast food bag. Amethyst whoops, off like a shot, and the quiet morning surrenders to the bustle of another day.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Hey everyone I have a lot of feelings about Steven Universe and also I have a six-month-old niece. I guess that explains all this! Come find me on tumblr if you like, at a-big-apple!</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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